November 27, 2020
Bureau Report
KARACHI
In the aftermath of protests by lawyers, the Sindh Bar Council elections will be held on Saturday as scheduled, The protests took place after the Returning Officer (RO) withdrew the notification postponing the elections in wake of rising cases of COVID-19.
According to the notification released on Friday in Karachi, RO Salman Talibuddin, also the Advocate General (AG) Sindh, said that no member would be allowed entry to cast votes in the polling area without wearing a mask and will have to provide satisfactory evidence of being enrolled with the SBC.
He said the notification of postponing the elections has been withdrawn after a delegation of senior members from the PBC and SBC expressed concerns over the postponement. The delegation assured that the standard operating procedures for COVID would be observed in the elections. He said the notification of postponement has been withdrawn and elections will be held on schedule on Saturday, November 28.
Hyder Imam Rizvi, vice chairman of Sindh Bar Council, told Voicepk.net that the lawyers had protested and expressed serious reservations over the postponement.
Following the protests, the elections have been allowed to be held on schedule. “Polling stations have been set up in Karachi in open areas of the SHC premises in order to contain infections from the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Approximately 10,000 Bar members are expected to cast their votes in Karachi. Similarly, close to 10,000 members are expected to cast votes in other cities of the province.:
On November 26, Talibuddin had postponed the elections in view of increase in the number of lawyers who had contracted COVID during recent elections of Sindh High Court Bar Association. The lawyers’ had condemned the postponement of polls and boycotted legal proceedings on Friday.
According to the Sindh Bar Council website, there are 38,802 advocates enrolled with the council. Of the total, 18469 advocates were from the lower courts while the rest 20,333 were from the high court.
